A team led by researchers from the University of Aberdeen Epidemiology Group have developed and tested a new questionnaire to measure how chronic pain affects people's working lives.
The questionnaire, called WORC-PAIN ("Working with Chronic Pain: Assessment of Impacts"), was developed with input from over 100 people with experience of chronic pain and from other stakeholders, including employers and healthcare professionals. Unlike existing measures, which mainly focus on absence and productivity, WORC-PAIN also captures wider effects of pain on finances, day-to-day concentration and mood, and the support people have in place to help them stay in work.
The tool was tested with over 900 people currently working with chronic pain, recruited through employers, NHS Boards and Trusts, charities, and within the general population. Statistical analysis showed the questionnaire's 24 items grouped into three domains - wider impacts, day-to-day impacts, and facilitators of work - giving researchers, clinicians and policymakers a fuller, more personally meaningful picture of how chronic pain affects working life.
WORC-PAIN was developed as part of the QUICK study, a multi-institutional collaboration led by Epi Group Head Professor Gary Macfarlane.
Professor Macfarlane said: '"The important influence of chronic pain on individuals' ability to work is now appreciated. This questionnaire for the first time allows us to quantify the broad range of impacts, which in turn allows us to try to develop interventions to reduce these impacts. We are grateful to people with lived experience who worked with us throughout the project and ensuring we captured impact which are important to them."
QUICK was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant number: MR/V020676/1) and the Arthritis UK/MRC Centre for Musculoskeletal Health and Work (CMHW; grant number: 22090). The project was a collaboration between researchers at the Universities of Aberdeen, Manchester, and Liverpool John Moores, along with Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London and Monash University in Australia, and included Epi Group members Dr Rosemary Hollick, Dr Elaine Wainwright, Dr LaKrista Morton, and former group member Dr Martin Stevens.
The full questionnaire is freely available for use at osf.io/hp4r2/files, and the paper has been published in the European Journal of Pain, available online at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejp.70337A plain language summary is available at: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/iahs/academic/epidemiology/our-research/plain-language-summaries/a-new-questionnaire-to-measure-the-impact-of-chronic-pain-on-work/